Bonus, Bro!
Town Council and Holler base bonuses on TOT for staff
Town Manager Dan Holler prepared an agenda item that was passed unanimously by the Mammoth Lakes Town Council on July 20 which delivered bonuses for five executive Town employees, including himself, paid for by Transient Occupancy Tax revenue.
The non-union employees—Police Chief Al Davis, Community and Economic Development Manager Sandra Moberly, Trails Coordinator Joel Rathje, Public Works Director Grady Dutton, and Town Manager Holler—were made eligible for a one-time bonus of $2,250 for Miscellaneous and $2,125 for Safety PERS classified employees. Safety PERS employees include positions like that which Chief Davis holds, Holler told The Sheet this week.
Holler explained at that meeting that the bonus “doesn’t put a long-term cost [on the Town], it’s just a one-time payment. And also, if [the Town is] not doing well, there is no payment. And we’re not obligated to a payment that would come from a cost of living-type adjustment for employees.”
Holler said that part of the reason for the bonuses was incentivizing employees to take ownership of the Town’s gains. “How do employees participate, if you will, in the Town’s success? Growing revenue, we think we’re a part of that. We pray for snow like other folks…[We’re] looking at TOT revenue as one of our major drivers of that [success]. If the Town does really well, how do we participate in that?”
Holler told The Sheet this week that he and the other four executive employees have already received these bonuses, and that the item passed on July 20 also called for bonuses to be given to the Town’s other employees in the amount of $3,000 each, also coming from TOT revenue.
These bonuses will be on the agenda at the November 16 Town Council meeting, Holler told The Sheet, though they have already been accepted “through that tentative agreement” on July 20, he said.
“The department heads brought [the bonuses based on TOT] up, and sort of set that standard, said, ‘We want to look at the one-time payment,’” said Holler.
“The money is in the bank so we know we can afford to pay you. I think this is a prudent way to handle this, it doesn’t make a trend…if we get no snow this year, what happens?”
Holler said that there will be a new calculation for the next Fiscal Year (2017/18) based on TOT revenue. “And if [the revenue] doesn’t come in, we’re not obligated to pay money out that we don’t have.”
